Remembering 1960s Afghanistan, the photographs of Bill Podlich

In 1967, Dr. William Podlich took a two-year leave of absence from teaching at Arizona State University and began a stint with UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to teach in the Higher Teachers College in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he served as the “Expert on Principles of Education.” His wife Margaret and two daughters, Peg and Jan, came with him. Then teenagers, the Podlich sisters attended high school at the American International School of Kabul, which catered to the children of American and other foreigners living and working in the country.

Outside of higher education, Dr. Podlich was a prolific amateur photographer and he documented his family’s experience and daily life in Kabul, rendering frame after frame of a serene, idyllic Afghanistan. Only about a decade before the 1979 Soviet invasion, Dr. Podlich and his family experienced a thriving, modernizing country. These images, taken from 1967-68, show a stark contrast to the war torn scenes associated with Afghanistan today.

“When I look at my dad’s photos, I remember Afghanistan as a country with thousands of years of history and culture,” recalls Peg Podlich. “It has been a gut-wrenching experience to watch and hear about the profound suffering, which has occurred in Afghanistan during the battles of war for nearly 40 years. Fierce and proud yet fun loving people have been beaten down by terrible forces.”

More of Dr. Podlich’s images are available on a website maintained by Peg’s husband Clayton Esterson. “I have taken on the role as family archivist and when Bill Podlich gave us his extensive slide collection, I immediately recognized the historical significance of the pictures.” says Esterson. “Many Afghans have written comments [on the website] showing their appreciation for the photographs that show what their country was like before 33 years of war. This makes the effort to digitize and restore these photographs worthwhile.”

"I grew up in Tempe, Arizona, and when my dad offered my younger sister, Jan, and me the chance to go with him and our mother to Afghanistan, I was excited about the opportunity. I would spend my senior year in high school in some exotic country, not in ordinary Tempe... Of course, there were loads of cultural differences between Arizona and Afghanistan, but I had very interesting and entertaining experiences. People always seemed friendly and helpful. I never got into any real difficulties or scrapes, even though I was a fairly clueless teenager! Times were more gentle back then." - Peg Podlich (Pictured at right). #

"In the spring of 1968, my family took a public, long-distance Afghan bus through the Khyber Pass to visit Pakistan (Peshawar and Lahore). The road was rather bumpy in that direction, too. As I recall, it was somewhat harrowing at certain points with a steep drop off on one side and a mountain straight up on the other! I remember that, before we left Kabul, my father paid for a young man to go around the bus with a smoking censor to bless the bus or ward off the evil eye. I guess it worked - we had a safe trip." - Peg Podlich. #

Mr. Bahir (Left), Dr. Podlich's counterpart at the Higher Teachers College of Kabul, and an Afghan teacher (Right).
"The Higher Teachers College was a two-year institution for training college-level teachers, located at Seh Aqrab Road and Pul-e-Surkh Road (on the west side of Kabul, near Karte-Seh)." - Peg Podlich #

Afghan girls coming home from school.
"Afghan girls, as well as boys, were educated up to the high school level, and although girls (and boys) wore uniforms, the girls were not allowed to wear a chadri (burka) on their way to secondary school. Able young women attended college, as did the men." - Peg Podlich #

The Salang Tunnel, located in Parwan province, is a link between northern and southern Afghanistan crossing the Hindu Kush mountain range under the difficult Salang Pass. The Soviet-built tunnel opened in 1964. #

King's Hill in Paghman Gardens.
"If you look at photos of the devastation of Europe or Asia after WWII and compare them with what you see nowadays or from pre-war times, you can get a similar feeling while looking at these photos from Afghanistan in the late 1960s... Perhaps looking at these old pictures when Afghanistan was a land of peace can encourage folks to see Afghanistan and its people as they were and could be. It is important to know that we have more in common with people in other lands than what separates us." - Peg Podlich #

A residential hillside in Kabul.
"For the year that I was in Kabul, my family lived in a house in Shari-Nau, up the road from the Shari-Nau Park.Ä My parents had lived in Denver, Colorado in the 1940s. My mother would say that Kabul reminded her of Denver: about a mile in altitude, often sunny, with beautiful mountains in the distance. I thought it seemed somewhat like Arizona because of the arid landscape and lack of rain. Since I was born [in Arizona], it was very easy for me to appreciate the stark beauty of the landscape there in Afghanistan." - Peg Podlich. #

Parking lot of the American International School of Kabul (AISK). The school no longer exists, although alumni stay in touch through Facebook and hold reunions every few years at different cities around the U.S. The next reunion will be held in Boston in 2013.
"AISK's last year was 1979, so the school had a 20 year history. AISK was located on the same campus that currently houses the American University of Afghanistan (on Darul-aman Rd in west Kabul). In 1967-68, there were about 250 students attending AISK and 18 graduating seniors." - Peg Podlich #

A mosque building stands west to the mausoleum of King Abdul Rahman -- in the present Zarnigar Park, center of Kabul -- which was the Bostan Serai built by King Habibullah (son of King Abdul Rahman). Today is stands as a store room for the Department of Preservation of Monuments, Ministry of Culture. #

American International School of Kabul (AISK), Senior English class. Peg Podlich is on the left.
"I was in my senior year (my final year) of high school and I attended the American International School of Kabul out on Darul-aman Road. In Tempe, I had walked four blocks to school; in Kabul a school bus stopped outside our home. Jan and I ran out when the driver honked the horn. On the bus, we were supervised by Indian ladies, wearing saris of course, and were driven with about 20 kids back through Kabul, around the hill to the west side of town." - Peg Podlich #

Jan Podlich on a shopping trip in Istalif. Jan in a short, sleeveless dress and the woman to the right in a chadri (burka).
"We arrived in Kabul one sunshiny morning in June... My dad met us and was able to whisk us through the customs. We proceeded into Kabul in a UN 'kombi' (kind of an old school SUV). I was tired, but I can remember being amazed at the sight of colorful (dark blue, green and maroon) ghosts that were wafting along the side of the road. My dad explained there were women underneath those chadris, and that some women had to wear them out in public. We never called the garments burkas... Depending on the country, women practicing purdah (Islamic custom requiring women to cover up) wear different styles of coverings, which have different names." - Peg Podlich.
#

Young men cooking kebabs.
"... Don't get me started about the smell and taste of lamb kebobs straight from the brazier! Yum! We had a naan oven not so far from the house. That was completely fascinating to watch the baker shape the naan, make slits in it with his fingers, pick up a stick and - in a quick, smooth motion - pick up the dough, bend over the hole in the top of the oven and plunk the naan smack dab on the side wall of the oven. After the correct number of minutes, he would reach in and tug the baked bread off the wall with the same stick and pull it right out. During that operation, he did not get burned by the fire, blazing away on the floor in the center of the oven. It was almost like a seated dance, really; the movements were that graceful." - Peg Podlich
#

A group of Afghan men look out over Istalif, about 18 miles northwest of Kabul, which was a centuries-old center of pottery making and other tourist attractions. The village was nearly destroyed by major fighting between "Northern Alliance" forces and the Taliban in the late 1990s. #

A Buddha statue in Bamiyan Valley- a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The two largest statues (not pictured here) were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
"That was a bumpy, rough trip, but I'll never forget how wide and green the valley was or how monumental those two Buddha statues were, carved into the face of the cliff... The statues were a magnificent sight, even to someone like me, who did not really understand the history or technical achievement of those statues." - Peg Podlich
#

According to UNESCO, "The cultural landscape and archaeological remains of the Bamiyan Valley represent the artistic and religious developments which from the 1st to the 13th centuries characterized ancient Bakhtria, integrating various cultural influences into the Gandhara school of Buddhist art. The area contains numerous Buddhist monastic ensembles and sanctuaries, as well as fortified edifices from the Islamic period. The site is also testimony to the tragic destruction by the Taliban of the two standing Buddha statues, which shook the world in March 2001." #

Dr. Bill Podlich on a hillside in Kabul.
"My dad was a professor of Elementary Education, specializing in teaching Social Studies, at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona from 1949 until he retired in 1981. He had always said that since he had served in WWII... he wanted to serve in the cause of peace. In 1967, he was hired by UNESCO as an Expert on Principles of Education, for a two-year stint in Kabul, Afghanistan at the Higher Teachers College... Throughout his adult life, because he was interested in social studies, whenever he traveled around (in Arizona, to Mexico and other places), he continued to take pictures. In Afghanistan he took half-frame color slides (on Kodachrome), and I believe he used a small Olympus camera." - Peg Podlich. #

Loved the whole page, all the pictures and beautiful text and paragraphs about my lovely country.

Faramarz

wow awesome pics

Abhimanyu

Amazing… if you have more of your travels, we’d love to see them.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=73302687 Dion PrimeTime Edon

Absolutely beautiful pictures – I’ve only deployed their twice, but in my short time their you could definitely feel the undercurrents of history running through the people, especially their desire to rebuild what they once had…

Tanveer

Great photography

http://www.facebook.com/habib.ahrariusa Habib Ahrari-usa

Wow, nice and amzing pictures. It is a shame that the Afghanistan has trasformed from what it was to what it is……..

stevieh_99@hotmail.com

A lovely time, but Afghanistan has been a theatre of war with the west for 200 years. The British invaded in the 19th century and were massacred as they left. Then they tried again some decades later and had various skirmishes and pacts with Russia in between. In fact only World Wars distracted from fighting in Afghanistan, when Britain & Russia had another common enemy. Then of course in 1979 it began again. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gamestevieh_99@hotmail.com

Andy

Great photographs! Thank you for sharing them. That’s a much different Afghanistan than I saw in 2010 and 2011. Just a minor correction – the Intercontinental Hotel pictured is actually the Intercontinental Hotel in Lahore which (after a few renovations) is now the Pearl Continental.

http://twitter.com/traylor2 Patrick Traylor

Hey thanks Andy- good catch. It does indee say “Lahore” right on the sign. I took it out since it’s not actually in Afghanistan.

shakir azizi

This is what my country is, I have been to all those places shown in picture, now there are 1000000 % change. i wish i was living then, not now…

deathcomesnoob

Looks peaceful and rich in culture.

Ellen Finnegan

It looks beautiful and I wish I could see it like that too. I am so sorry!

bucky59

It would be nice if your country was like this again one day!

http://www.facebook.com/shakiba.rahimi Shakiba Rahimi

very enjoyable thanks for sharing

http://www.facebook.com/khoshhal.mehrabi Khosh Hal Khan Mehrabi

That was the best picture I ever seen in my life! and I m feeling so sad that we are still in the life of third world process system! but I hope I see Afghanistan will com back to the line of world leading countries. Inshllah!

Lonewolf6

Served in Afghanistan in 2012. Hope to see this serenity return someday.

Tariq kamal Usafzai

The most beautiful, richest traditional and the land of loving Pashtoon,Hazara and so many other Nations ,Has now be come the buffer state of the so called Super powers and selfish neighbors, I think if it was the progress of 1960,s if it remain in the same such position it should be the most advance country of the CENTRAL Asia.

May Allah give strength to the Masses of Great Afghan to rebuilt most beautiful Country again ,,,,Ameeen

Tariq kamal

Research Analyst

Al Quds Media Center

Islamabad Usafzai

http://twitter.com/MasiWahidi Masiullah

WoW, Amaizing pictures I must say, I would love to see more if you can share. I just cant belive that we had a country like that….Now its totally changed…

http://twitter.com/AfghanJourno abdulmalikachakzai

It is heart bleeding moment, just imagine if Afghanistan had gone through history with the same rhythm. What would have been the result? Our bad luck we got sandwiched between the two blocks. That’s why the imperialist class produced that dangerous bacteria [al-qaeda, terrorism, extremism, fundamentalism] and sprayed that over Afghanistan. Which affected our very moderate, progressive society into a disrupt one. Now, it is the duty of international world to assist Afghanistan honestly [not hypocritically] otherwise, disturbance of Afghans won’t let any corner of the world in peace.

http://www.facebook.com/drew.schumann Drew Schumann

Your vision is one of pure fantasy. Radical Pashtunism has, again and again destroyed progressivism in Afghanistan since 1747, without influence from Imperialists. You’ll recall the British invaded Afghanistan the first time because Pashtuns would not stop invading India. That is, if you know anything of history, which I sincerely doubt.

Mike Rakestraw

Hope…

Can humans change a behavior that they know results in more dead humans?

Ahad Shahbaz

We need to learn more about Afghan history before making such statements!

AfghanGrandpa

No. Pashtunwali is an honorable code. Many Pashtuns take pashtunwali before religion as it predates it. The taliban pashtun population does not represent the whole.

Samera

Hey be careful of what your saying…that is not Afghanistan disturbing the world…that is a terrorism system which has been published in Afghanistan but is being implemented everywhere!!! and since illiteracy rules the country, many people (including almost 90% of Pashtuns) are supporting Taliban, without knowing they are not working for us but for their higher authorities, e.g. Pakistan.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1272635311 Dean Eaton

You were lucky to have seen the country when it was…what it was.What an extraordinary opportunity, and an extraordinary parent to offer itto you. You and Jan look about 15 up there…!!

Susana Koch

Thank you Peg for sharing the pictures and your memories with us. We can only hope that the Afghanistani people will one day enjoy the same freedom they had in those days.

AfghanistanHopes

Dear Dr.William , thousands of thanks to you and your family for nice photography , we can feel your love for Afghanistan , you will be remember in heart of every Afghan. These pictures show that Afghanistan was developing more good then any country of the world,we pray may God send all those international and domestic warriors to worst hell. International and domestic war criminals destroyed the beautiful Afghanistan.

Jon

I was privileged to travel through Afghanistan in 1974. Today I cried while looking at these pictures. In those 39 years this beautiful country and its peoples have been destroyed in turn by the Russians, the Taliban and the Americans. There is nothing else to say.

ummm – be careful, the Americans saved the Afghans from the Russians. And the Americans would NOT have gone to Afghanistan if it wasn’t for al qaeda and the Taliban. It was brought on themselves. The Taliban were asked to turn over Bin Laden, and they did not.

These pictures make me sad for the people of Afghanistan. It shows a vibrant, forward-moving society at peace. Too bad Islam took root.

dost muhammad

sir islam is religon of peace and brotherhood……. afghanistan was destryed by foreign invasions… islam took root in afghanistan 1200 yrs ago while afghanistan was dragged back to stone age after russian invassion………

GatzLoc

no it is not, Islam’s leader mohammed slept with 9 years olds as an old man in his late 50s.

Sayeda

The Afghans themselves brought it on? You should be careful how you choose your words. Maybe the root of this particular problem is the U.S., for giving birth to these monsters (Al-Qaeda and the Taliban). I’m not opposed to this pointless war because I am an Afghan-American… I’m opposed to it because plenty of innocents died for no good reason. Is the problem solved? No… and I’m afraid there’s even less stability then there was before the war. Sure, religion sucks… but so does America’s foreign policy. The U.S. only supplied the Mujahideen with the weapons that are being used against them now. Look how much that has helped.

http://www.facebook.com/hamidullah.mohammady Hamidullah Mohammady

I agree that this is shame that what we were and what we are now.

Õnne Pärl

Thank you for wonderful pictures. I lived in Afghanistan from 2006-2008 and travelled around as freelance journalist. A lot of places look quite the same – Shah-e do Shamshera, Kabul Gorge or Salang. Other places are in ruins like Paghman Gardens or Istalif village. Bamian Buddha statues are gone.
Street view is quite different – more tense, more ruins and chaos, all women are covered…
But somehow it is similar – vendors, kebab and bread makers, camels, donkeys and horses…
I used to walk alone with my camera. But as a woman I never was able to walk like Peg.

Always totally covered with loose clothes and with chadori.

You can recognize some of places from my blog: afghanistan-photogallery.blogspot.com

http://www.facebook.com/khairuddin.shirzad Khairuddin Elchi

Thanks for sharinng these pictures, i believe we lost everything we had, by following these Local Jihadists. Wish that no more war again. God please hear our voice.

Mara Sobotka

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I wish more Americans could hear your voices so that we could understand your lives from your perspective instead of what we are fed by the media.

Khairuddin Elchi

How long they can hear our voice? we afghans to do for our country by the help of God. thanks.

Fazal Khan

Pakistan is not going to leave Afghanistan. In Afghanistan Local Jihadists don’t know nothing. behind the religion Pakistan is playing great game with Afghanistan.

Rana Ali Akhtar Alam Khan

we face the same thing brother..

Khairuddin Elchi

i am agree with you bro.

jebreel

beautiful picture of Kabul and Afghanistan ,for sure one day Afghans will live the way the use to it prior the war

http://www.facebook.com/spar.sparkle Sparghai Basir

Thank you so much from the lovely pictures and lovely memories Mr Podlich. British War, Soviet War, fundemantals and now the invasion of US and ISAF has destroyed this country !
i wish if i would born that time.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1520192393 Rick Riemer

Thank you to the Podlich-Esterson family for sharing these photos, and to the Denver Post for making them readily available.

Eng. Yonos Akhtar

These pictures was too nice clean weather of Kabul , Bamyan and Estalef that looking in these pictures is enjoy able .

http://www.facebook.com/dwyerj1 John Dwyer

Thank you for publishing these beautiful pics of a beautiful people in a beautiful country.

abhinandan

sometimes aristocracy is better than than ill conceived democracy……

Iskandar Khan

For a moment, I was Lost! ……..Thank You!

http://twitter.com/GeoffTitley Geoff Titley

A classic archive. Thank you very much for sharing this.

http://www.facebook.com/standiane.friesen StanDiane Friesen

Thank you for an amazing trip back in time – literally to the ‘good old days!’ We arrived in Kabul in December of 1969 so some of these pics are amazingly similar to the Afghanistan we knew. This summer we will be attending an AISK reunion in Boston – as you mentioned, we still get together after all these years!

Genevieve

An Afghan man posted this article to our Facebook page collecting all the un-seen pictures from this lovely era in Afghanistan. This was set up because I realize that I need to know a different image of this embattled country. https://www.facebook.com/TheAfghanistanIKnow

Primmy8

I shall try and upload my photographs too. Give me a bit of time, not all that good at it. yet. but I realise that they are worth sharing.

Primmy8

I will be posting my 1978 photos on this facebook site, and I hope you all enjoy them. They are lovely. They have traveled from being slides to pictures to digital ( but tif) and will now be changed to jpg so that I can up load them for you. Wait until Wednesday 13th, it will take me that long to get them fixed.

Necip

Afghanistan is a beautiful place where courageous people living. The only problem in Afghanistan is American Imperialism which destroyed the soul of this beautiful country and people. American soldiers are coming here, they are from middle of nowhere in the US, mostly rednecks, no cultural experience, no respect the human life; these ignorant american soldiers killing the people of Afghanistan….

mirt

I remember my friends telling how they cut minarets down with single round of tank shots in 80ies. They fought against American Imperialism, or so they were told.

Avesta

beautiful ♥

Ellen

I was there in 1968 on my way back from India where my parents worked in Delhi for two years. Afghanistan was a beautiful, vibrant place. I returned in 1974 and 1975, and I have happy memories and beautiful photographs, too. Thank you for posting these images. It is very difficult for most people to imagine what Afghanistan was like before their troubles. I, too, have been to all the places shown in the pictures. I dread seeing what they look like today.

http://www.facebook.com/tariq.hashemee Tariq Hashemee

thanks for wonderful photos, before three or four decade the Kabul was
very clean and promoted i hope those who are living in Kabul and they
don’t know anything about Urban Culture i hope these pics wake up theme
and persuade them to make once again the Kabul as it was.

they must know that ‘OUR CITY IS OUR HOME’.

jamie

Beautiful photos, so nice to see a normal looking Afghanistan. Can’t believe what the worlds done to them..

http://twitter.com/RayleneHansen Raylene Hansen

I was in Afghanistan in 1976 and also remember many places in these slides. It was one of my favourite countries and it breaks my heart to see what has happened in the intervening years. Thanks for the memories!

http://www.facebook.com/people/Bob-Sleigh/531575752 Bob Sleigh

I visited the country in 1973, such a different world. How sad, all that has happened since.

Paul

Incorrect. The Taliban was created by the Pakistani ISI in the 1990s (years after the war against the Soviets) to give it “strategic depth” for its Indian policy. Russia is solely responsible for the disparity between these pictures and Afghanistan today.

kank

if you dont believe me , then read this . if u still dont, then edit the wiki. ->> “The Taliban movement traces its origin to the Pakistani-trained mujahideen in northern Pakistan, during the Soviet war in Afghanistan.” – wiki – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliban#Origin

EM

Funny. I guess that if you use a google it should be enough to find out the connections between Bin Laden, mujahideen and …CIA. Please, don’t be naive.

DJEB

Incorrect.

” Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.”

-Zbigniew Brzezinski

Omaid

Not Agreed with you- there was a lot difference

hachaturyan

вот были люди как люди, а потом раз и всей страной ёбу дались.

el-k

Sad… Compared to pictures of recent years, about nothing in common… :(

Jamila

Thank you for that. I myself was born there but have not returned since I was a child. The sights and experiences you convey are ones I can’t claim, or if I can, they are hazy and dream-like. Still I have lived my 32 years in the shadow of the loss of it.

DJEB

Correct. The Taliban sprang out of the mujahideen, which were created by the ISI with CIA involvement. Furthermore, the Russians were reluctant to enter and would not have invaded were it not for Brzezinski’s “Afghan trap.”

http://twitter.com/OmarZaidMD Omar Zaid, M.D.

BRAVO … KUDOS …. I wept

atash parcha

I love this! It’s the Kabul my parents talk about. I was there for 4-5 years and I never believed my parents when they talk about their Kabul, until I saw pictures like these! Thank you.

http://twitter.com/dumpstories Robert Martin

These pictures scare me. Here in America we don’t think about how far things can fall so fast…..and makes me realize its possible that America could be like how Afghanistan is now in 20 years.

BLADAYADA

Afghanistan was a beautiful country. It’s a damn shame that political BS has turned so much of it to rubble.

Anon

I spent 15 months in Afghanistan late 2010 through 11, and to see these pictures portraying such a country before the wars hit is saddening. I’ve seen many parts of the country from the east to the south, Pretty much everything around highway 1 connecting Kabul and Kandahar. Theses photos really made me upset to see how these people lived in present years compared to the lifestyle they had half a century ago, it brings a whole new respect to the many village elders i’ve met…

Omar

قربان حرف هایت

Michael

Thanks so much…I traveled thru Afghanistan in late 1970, and have so many memories from that time – the streets of Kabul filled with pedestrians, donkeys, horses, camels, Mercedes-Benz, taking a (what we would call a schoolbus) of the Royal Afghan Mail over the Kabul and Khyber passes, paying a toll to bandits before LandiKotal before we dropped down into Peshawar -

http://twitter.com/fettahsmetoglu Fettah Sametoğlu

The most fascinating pictures I have ever seen since I had to leave my beloved homeland Afghanistan.I have spent almost 33 years abroad but there has always been a place for the beatiful ‘kabul ‘ in the corner of my heart. Thanks alot to the Poglish family to present this Photo Archives in DenverPostI believe once day this war torne land will reflourish.

Asadullah

We are looking forward to restoring that peaceful era again in Afghanistan. These pictures shows that we are going a step back in every sphere of our country.

http://synerdata.net/ Gordon Stark

So much has been lost there…
It gives “being bombed back into the stone age” new meaning.
Such rich and important culture, and all that should have been.
War is such a horrible thing.

S Lasher

thanks for sharing these treasures.

lakshmi

lovely Afghanistan…..i wish the people of Afghanistan peace and happiness……

Owen

thanks so much for sharing these pictures! I live in Kabul and really it is so nice to see how it was before, it gives hope for the future! If you have more pictures it would be great! bye

bean701

This is fascinating stuff. My 8th grade global studies class is learning about the middle east right now, and one theme is how the recent politicization of Islam and fanatical extremist views are relatively modern things. Most of these nations were balanced in the 60s and 70s with give and take between secular and religious views. There are similar pictures from Iran pre revolution as well. I wish we could go back.

http://www.facebook.com/petr.syrucek Petr Syrucek

Wikipedia:On December 5, 1978, a friendship treaty was signed between the Soviet
Union and Afghanistan. On July 3, 1979, United States President Jimmy Carter signed the first directive for covert financial aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.

http://www.facebook.com/mathilde.walker.31 Mathilde Walker

Thank you for this glimpse of Afghanistan.

http://www.facebook.com/bueandre Andre Bue

So Taliban who destroyed countless cultural sites (like the Buddha statues) had nothing to do with it.. right?

Sajawand Afghan

Sometime I am lost in thinking that how everything suddenly changed? Shame on our elders they destroyed our land for different reasons and interest. We will never let our next generation (our children) to live in situation that we have been living for long time, because of our freaking leaders.

AfghanGrandpa

Wrong. I have lived here my whole life (besides studying at Oxford University in my late teens/early 20s). In the 60s and early 70s girls could walk around in skirts if they were longer than knee length, but culturally, they always had a translucent scarf partially covering their heads. As I approach my final days, I will die someone who has spent a good 30 years reminiscing on what my beautiful land once was.

madankerr

Hello AfghanGrandpa. Naturally you will have a more detailled view of how things have changed over time in Afghanistan. I can only describe what I experienced during my visit in the 1970s. Maybe girls could walk uncovered in some areas, but I didn’t see any in the streets and markets we visited, only women in burkhas. I feel your sorrow for lost beauty and a deep wish for peace, health and prosperity for your country.

Ahmad Shah

I thank all of friend hope to be Afghanistan peaceful Country. But my opinion our neighbor countries like Fackistan and Iran will not allowed us to have peaceful life. We pray to remove Fakistan from world map.

George Faraj

“Do you want me to blame Christianly for the bad things that are happening in Africa since European went
there with their perception of how they wanted to make people of Africa to live during the time of colonization?”

Yes.

Belal Faqiry

Right now i live in Kabul afghanistan and i have been to every place shown in the pictures there r 100% changes now if someone from that time will now go to those places he will be lost we had such a beautiful and peaceful country and now look everyday bombings killing people and other crimes have raised i wish i could be borned and lived in that time not now.

Belal Faqiry

And one other thing is that i thank the one who shared these pictures thanks a lot

Omar khan

I had the privilege of visiting Afghanistan in 1977 before the Afghan wars. Dawood was the president and it was beautiful. A few years later when the Americans with the help of their toady gen Zia were sowing the seeds of extremism very carefully misfits like me protested and raised our voices. We knew they are jeopardizing our lives for their political benefits which might come at the cost of hundreds of millions of Pakistanis and Afghans along with many others.

We were ridiculed then and slapped down.

This world can be cruel. The culprits so conveniently play victims and get way with it.

Aqdus Viqar

you are rite

Shernanigan

Heartbreaking when I think of what Afghanistan is reduced to now.

TheThinker1958

you forgot ‘burning the witches’… oops… that was in Salem, in the US.

Khalid Rahim

A beautiful country with great traditions destroyed by intrigues of the Neocons and their proteges.

Boberator

Wow, what a beautiful place it was back then. The people looked so happy and free.

Corey

All we can do is hope for the best, maybe one of these days it will good as it used to be! HOPE!

David

Thank you for the collection of photos great memories of a beautiful country in a time of peace.

SaurabhWorld

How a beautiful country was destroyed by Islam, USSR, USA and Pakistan.

Matt

I love how Wikipedia is the know-all answer site for evidence! when any idiot with a computer can add to a Wikipedia page. Use Journals, magazines, books, etc… to gather real evidence.

Omer Ahmadzai

Afghanistan destroy by CIA and KGB
the war in Afghanistan was between Russia and USA who pay for the jihadists Usa support them that all the game and they plane for Afghanistan many years ago and destroy over country and million of innocent afghan die and lost their family.
if any one know at time of DR Najeeb Ahmadzai they kill the ambassador of USA in Paghman cuz he go their and give the funds to the Jihadists .
who do these thing to us Allah will bring on them one day inshallah

Fred Opoku Sarkodie

war destory peaceful home say no to war and our places will be a better place for our generation to see

robjh1

Such a beautiful country then.

Khudadad Shirzai

These were the great moment for we Afghan people.I liked it.thanks for sharing.

Alex

Soviets were there before 1979 invasion. If you look at 1967 pictures, you see a Soviet built tunnel, cars.
Then americans started meddling with Afganistan, that led to 1979 invasion, that escalated to a full blown war thanks to Tom Hanks support.

Alex

Soviets were there before 1979 invasion. If you look at 1967 pictures, you see a Soviet built tunnel, cars. It blows my mind to see such a peacefull country, and girls going to scholls there and not wearing full black clothes covering everrything
Then americans started meddling with Afganistan, that led to 1979 invasion, that escalated to a full blown war thanks to Tom Hanks support. CIA created Taliban and AlQueda.